Increasing Rear tire clearance in a 68-70 Charger

[Kern Dog]

I never looked at the 66-67 B body cars but I guess they might have the same problem.
My red '70 has had tire clearance problems at the rear since I first mounted these wheels and tires. When I ordered them, I looked at a stock wheel and saw how much wider that I could go. I didn't notice that stupid ridge in the outer wheel tub.

[Kern Dog]

In my red car, I have an 18 x 10 wheel, 4 3/4" BS and a 295-45-18 tire that is listed to be 28.46 tall.
It rubs that bulge in the outer wheel house when hitting bumps if I have a passenger or am alone and driving with a full tank.
In my "Jigsaw" Charger, I modified both sides by cutting along that ridge line as well as making perpendicular cuts in a manner than resembles football stitching, then pushing the flaps in to make it concaved.

[Kern Dog]

The final product resulted in a big improvement.

[Kern Dog]

For "Ginger" the red car, I want to make it so the outer tub closer follows the quarter panel outline. This means that I want to make the outer side of the outer tub to go almost vertical instead of an arch like the inner tub does. To get there, I cut round shaped wheel tubs from a Ford truck bed awhile back.
There is one concern about using them. I did the Jigsaw Charger by welding. With rough paint and dents, I didn't care if a weld heated up the quarter panel. On Ginger, I can't risk damaging the paint.

[Kern Dog]

For this car, I'm going to use a panel bonding adhesive.  I have to scrape the undercoating to get a clean surface.
I think that I will cut the ridge line like I did with Jigsaw and make the perpendicular cuts. Then I'll take the Ford tubs and do whatever cutting, shaping and welding that I have to do to make them fit. I'll probably position them using screws, then apply the adhesive.
I hope to get going on this within a couple of weeks.
I'd be interested in hearing from others that have done this whether they did it with the quarter panels off or like mine with everything all together.

[mopar4don]

 Interested 

[Kern Dog]

I wanted to post a thread at the 1970 Charger Registry about this project but the site owner banned me for mentioning in a post that I didn't believe in the need for the  vaccine.  
It sucks to be "cancelled" for expressing your opinions.

[Kern Dog]

The weather was nice this weekend so I was out in the shop. You can see that the tires are set out pretty wide so they need some room.

[Kern Dog]

In the first of the pictures you can see the shiny spots where the tires were making contact.


I had to scrape the sound deadener to get to clean metal. I've read several threads on undercoating and sound deadener removal and the air powered needle scaler seemed to be a popular tool for the job.

[Kern Dog]

Wait...what is that? F8 green??

[Kern Dog]

I sometimes forget that the car was green originally. This reminds me of going out with a blonde and later in the night, you see that she is actually a brunette !

After scraping off the undercoating/sound deadener, I sanded the painted surfaces with the D/A sander and 40 grit discs.

[Kern Dog]

In my Jigsaw Charger, I cut along that protruding ridge, made opposing cuts and inverted that ridge. This time, I wanted more clearance than that method allowed. Still, I followed the same procedure and pushed all the flaps to where I wanted them. It turned out that the gaps between the flaps were too big so I just cut all the flaps out to make a hole....

[Kern Dog]

I took one of the Ford truck wheel tubs I cut from a truck at a self service yard and started trial fitting it. It took several fittings and cuts to get it to fit. The added clearance it will have is amazing.

[Kern Dog]

I used self tapping screws to hold the panel in place, then moved over to the left side. This side is going a LOT faster since I did not bother trying to make the small cuts and bends. I just went ahead and made the hole for the patch.

[Kern Dog]

At first I decided to use a panel bonding adhesive to attach the patch because I was worried about burning the paint when welding along the wheel opening. With the way that I was able to bend the flanges, the welds will be at least an inch from the quarter panels so I could still go either way.

[WHITE AND RED 69]

Nicely done! 

I'm going to do something similar one of these days. Many times I've just wanted to heat it up and hammer it back just to get a little extra clearance but cutting it out and reshaping it is the way to go.

[Kern Dog]

I know a guy that had a '68 GTX. He used a torch and just heated the tub until it was soft enough to move when he hit it with a hammer. His was a drag car but me? I would never try such butchery on a car that was painted. The heat of the torch will travel from the wheel tub to any metal near it. Body filler, no matter how thin, may not like the heat and who knows for sure what happens after that.

[TTSaleen]

Nice job!

[Kern Dog]

Thank you, guys.

The patch panel had to be "pie-cut" in order to get it to bend to the shape that I needed. When you need a inside curve, the flaps lay over each other. An outside curve results in gaps between the sections, like this:

[Kern Dog]

I pulled the panels off to weld up the gaps. It was much easier than leaving them in place and welding overhead.

I'll weld up the left side and dress all the welds with a grinder....then "glue" them in place.

[TTSaleen]

Damn impressive work.
You should make some templates and market this.  I'd be the first in line to buy a set!   

[mopar4don]

Your doing a great job Kern. That has to be scary welding in there with that beautiful paint....

I know it's a little late for you but these might help the next guy.

I saw US Car Tool has these now

https://store.uscartool.com/66-70-Mopar-B-Body-Growth-Ring-Outer-Wheelhouse-Flare-Kit-Dodge-ONLY_p_253.html

[WHITE AND RED 69]

Your doing a great job Kern. That has to be scary welding in there with that beautiful paint....

I know it's a little late for you but these might help the next guy.

I saw US Car Tool has these now

https://store.uscartool.com/66-70-Mopar-B-Body-Growth-Ring-Outer-Wheelhouse-Flare-Kit-Dodge-ONLY_p_253.html

Dang. I might have to look into this...wonder if a 315 tire will fit with the stock leaf spring locations?

[Kern Dog]

Thank you Don.
I actually did what the US Cartool patch offers in my "Jigsaw" Charger by inverting the ridge.
The patches I made for this car allow even more room as shown in the picture below. The US Cartool patch does not follow the wheel opening straight up like mine will.
Theirs tapers down from the middle to the wheel opening.
I have a 295-45-18 on a 10 inch wheel. I have about an inch to the leaf springs and inner tub and about 1 1/4" to the wheel opening molding. It would be tight but an 11" wide wheel and a 315 should fit though.

[Kern Dog]

I decided to weld instead of using the panel bond stuff.
The initial reasoning was my concerns about putting too much heat near the quarter panel. I got around that by doing short bursts and blowing compressed air afterwards. I'm having trouble with the welds though. They look terrible. I have a MIG with a 75/25 Argon-CO2 and am using .030 wire. The wheel tub sheet metal is thinner than the Charger wheel tub. I either get tall welds or I burn through. I've tried numerous wire speeds and can't seem to get consistent welds. I'm lucky this job will be covered in seam sealer and undercoating but crap...I wanted it to look better than this. I'm going to try some thinner wire, something like an .023 or similar.